An Answering Service is a must for any Service Company!

I was recently reading an article by the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration news regarding how a call answering service is still relevant.  Of course being in the answering service industry I completely agree with the article but I wanted to share some points from the article. 

According to Mike Agugliaro, owner of a HVAC company in New Jersey, he was able to generate an additional 5.4 million in revenue from using an answering service.  Mike began using an answering service 3 years ago not only to help with after-hour and emergency calls, but to answer over flow calls during business hours.  Overflow calls are handled when a call can’t be answered during the day due to either nobody in the office or if their phone is busy.  The call after a certain amount of rings will forward to the answering service.  Mike stated, “Nobody’s calling a plumber, HVAC company, or an electrician solely to chat about their weekend,”, “Something bad is really happening. When you’re in the middle of something really bad, the worst thing is to call and get an answering machine.  We recognize when people are in a time of need, they need a human being to talk it through, calm them down, and help them through the situation.”

Mike also saw a huge impact to his business when hurricane Sandy hit and their phone lines were down but the answering service was still answering his phones.  “If we didn’t have this backup system in place, we would have lost millions of dollars,” Agugliaro said. “But since we did, when our phone system dropped out, the call center was picking up, and we were able to survive.” 

An answering service can help your business in many ways and these two examples show how invaluable the answering service is to this heating and cooling company.  Once you understand the reason why an answering service is invaluable to your company you must determine which answering service fits your business needs.  Just like the HVAC industry, no two answering service are alike. 

Some of the criteria you should use when searching for an answering service includes; does the answering service you are looking at answer every call live?  This is important because some answering services claim to answer the calls in 2 rings, however they don’t claim to answer the calls live within 2 rings.  If an operator doesn’t answer every call live, some services use a recorded greeting to answer the calls within 2 rings only to tell your caller to stay on the line for the next available operator.  This is a tremendous difference.  Does the answering service you are looking at meet the needs of your employees with how they like to receive a call?  Make sure the answering service can dispatch the way you and your employees like to be dispatched.  Texting, emailing and calling should be able to be done for every individual that may take a call.  One employee may prefer a text after hours while another employee doesn’t like texting, but rather receive a call.  Make sure the answering service meets the needs of your business.  Does the answering service have people answering the phones that sound professional and empathetic to the needs of your customers and treat your customers like you would expect your own employees to treat them?  Ask for references from the prospective answering service and call their references.  Ask the reference about the people answering the phones.  Does the person answering the phones exceed your expectations in terms of tone and professionalism?  Ask the answering service if they record their calls and then ask for a sample recording of their operators handling an emergency no heat call.  The person answering the phone is the face of your business.  Make sure the impression that is left with your callers is positive.

One answering service that should be considered for your call handling needs is All City Communications.  All City Communications exceeds the expectations of their customers’ needs in terms of ring count, dispatch customization, and operator quality and has done so since 1979.  Don’t lose revenue by not being available to answer your phones or by settling for an average answering service.  Exceed your competition and your customers’ expectations by utilizing the perfect answering service, All City Communications.